Wind energy applications are rapidly increasing in power generating systems due to widespread public support for renewable energy. Wind energy, however, has not been considered as an important factor in capacity planning since wind penetration has traditionally been insignificant compared to conventional generation. It will be increasingly important to consider wind energy in generation planning as wind penetration continues to increase. It is difficult to assign a capacity credit to a wind turbine generator since its actual capacity is limited by the random variation of the wind speed and the turbine characteristics. Capacity planning considering wind power requires realistic cost/reliability evaluation techniques that respond to the inherent random variables. This talk presents an evaluation model and applies it to a test system to illustrate the influence of different factors on generation planning.

Dr. Rajesh Karki obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and became Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in 2002. Currently he holds the position of Chair of the Power Systems Research Group in the department. His researches focus on power system reliability and renewable energy application in power systems. He is registered as a Professional Engineer in the Province of Saskatchewan, and is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Before joining University of Saskatchewan, he obtained two years of industrial experience at GE Industrial Systems in the Power Solutions Engineering Group, Peterborough, Ontario. Prior to coming to Canada he worked as an electrical power engineer at Nepal Hydro & Electric and Nepal Telecommunications for three years.